to help us to understand and deconstruct capitalism in order to create a sustainable and peaceful social system.

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 10, 2016

45 Years After COINTELPRO, FBI Still Thinks 'Dissent is the Enemy'

"That the FBI cannot discern between activism and terrorism shows us that they think dissent is still the enemy," said Chip Gibbons, legal fellow with Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation, which organized the letter. "There have been multiple attempts at reform but after each and every one we see the same thing happening again. The FBI claims to no longer investigate groups for their political beliefs, but look at who the FBI investigates under its counterterrorism authority—peace groups, racial justice groups, economic justice groups—the very same types of organizations that were targeted during the heyday of J. Edgar Hoover."

Because there has been no ongoing organization that keeps records of the actual history of ordinary people, every generation has to re-learn the same lessons. In this piece McCauley has done some research which--surprise! surprise!--reveals that dissent is still the enemy of the ruling capitalist class.

Until ordinary people organize and establish institutions that keep records of our history, we will see essays like this every generation. In recent years History Commonshas been doing just that, but like all other alternative organizations they are begging for financial support because most ordinary people are so caught up in the election circus and all the other distractions supplied by our masters to keep us ignorant.

Until substantial numbers of ordinary people support alternative organizations, the many problems we see today will only get worse under the system of capitalism. We have no alternative but to organize ourselves to defeat capitalist rule. Nowadays we have the literal equivalent of Patrick Henry's theme expressed as "Give me liberty or give me death" because it is our very survival as humans that is at stake.